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Artists Got Together To Create A Breaching Whale With 10,000 Pounds Of Plastic.

From May 5 to September 16, 2018, contemporary artists and architects from all over the globe created impressive constructions that were set to appear in the historic city center in Bruges, a city in Belgium. The Bruges Triennial invited these creative geniuses to construct something inspired by the role of liquidity, which is perfect since Bruges is surrounded by waterways. But what did STUDIOKCA, an architecture and design firm from New York do? They had a whale of a time when they contributed a humongous 38-foot tall breaching humpback whale made up of the most common waste to plague oceans worldwide... plastic.

STUDIOKCA needed material to create this gigantic whale in time for the artistic event in Bruges.

They recruited the help of the Hawaii Wildlife Fund in order to do several beach clean-ups. They ended up collecting over 10,000 pounds of plastic from the ocean. The Bruges Whale is known as Skyscraper and it brings to light a serious issue about our environment.

Matthias Desmet

The world's oceans are in danger because of the growing problem of plastic waste that litters the water.

The project was designed to put a spotlight on a serious issue. It seems that cities from all over the world are contributing to the approximate 150 million tons of plastic trash that continues to pile up in the sea, and it has to stop.

Matthias Desmet

The Bruges Whale seems to rise from the canal and shows the impact humans make with plastic waste.

As a physical example, it proves that societies across the globe need to figure out how to use and dispose of plastic differently than they are now before every body of water turns into some sort of icky plastic soup.

Matthias Desmet

StudioKCA also used Kickstarter to raise the money needed in order to complete this massive skyscraper.

While the whale itself is made up of plastic, there are steel and aluminum components that were needed in order to complete this work of art. Then they had to hire cranes and tools to transport the parts to Bruges in time to assemble it on location for the event.

Matthias Desmet

The project was led by Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang of STUDIOKCA, who made this piece possible.

The firm felt that a whale coming out of the water was the perfect way to show how serious plastic pollution has become. After all, is there a better way to get people's attention than by creating an artwork of a whale breaching from the water?

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